David Koch Brags About Influence On Wisconsin Recall

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The Koch brothers — the financial backers for Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group dedicated to making Barack Obama a one-term president and rolling back union rights across the country — rarely give interviews. So this lengthy discussion with the Palm Beach Post is noteworthy, especially since David Koch bluntly asserts that he and his brother are helping Governor Scott Walker fend off a broadly popular recall effort in Wisconsin:

Asked about his efforts to sway public opinion, Koch acknowledges his group is hard at work in places such as Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker is facing off with public unions and grappling with a likely recall vote.

“We’re helping him, as we should. We’ve gotten pretty good at this over the years,” he says. “We’ve spent a lot of money in Wisconsin. We’re going to spend more.”

By “we” he says he means Americans for Prosperity, which is spending about $700,000 on an “It’s working” television ad buy in the state. It credits Walker’s public pension and union overhaul with giving school districts the first surpluses they’ve seen in years. The unions and the left see things differently.

A year ago, a blogger posing as David Koch famously prank-called Walker and goaded the governor to say it would be “outstanding” if Koch would fly him to “Cali” as a reward for crushing the public unions. The Koch brothers’ conglomerate, Koch Industries, holds regular political meetings in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and the events have attracted the likes of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

At the time of the prank call, Koch told The New York Times, he didn’t even know the Wisconsin governor’s name. He knows it now.

“What Scott Walker is doing with the public unions in Wisconsin is critically important. He’s an impressive guy and he’s very courageous,” Koch says after a benefit dinner of salmon and white wine. “If the unions win the recall, there will be no stopping union power.”

One of the largest problems in our politics is the idea of persons who are not residents of a state trying to influence the opinions of the voters in a state.

Howz 1

This is an effort to defund the Democratic party, since unions are the biggest contributors. The probelem is the act is already done and there were 1 million signatures on the recall petition. The Koch brothers are not going to sway those people no matter how much money they spend, they need another 1 million voters to counter act what against them. Indiana is doing the same thing with Mitch Daniels making it a right to work state, and Gov. Christie in NJ is baattling the unions also. Think this is a plan here? I’m more concerned that two justices are involved with the Koch Brothes and they should recuse themselves when citizens united comes back before the court.

concernedusa7

Collective Bargaining is 100% American
In business we collective bargain in negotiating contracts and other business dealings.
In the early 1900’s as the industrial revelution took place employers ran roughshod over employees, so employees gathered into collectives to enable themselves to collective bargain for safe humane working conditions.
Collective Bargaining must maintain a delicate balance or Democracy will deteriorate to Autocracy and fail.
The Koch Brothers and their Associates in business and government desire and are striving to establish an Autocracy, which will destroy the United States of America.

Frank3

The Koch Bros. statement concerning the amount of money they are spending to influence votes in Wisconsin is an insult to the people of that great State. They are inferring that the voters may be bought and/or are not intelligent enough to form well grounded decisions. Their arrogance should be firmly rejected by the people.

Quality NOT Quantity

ideally, change would happen with the pendulum settling in the middle where the reward of change is felt by the majority, when it swings too far to the right or left, the majority is always left holding the bag, the sack, or whatever you want to call it! unions are just as corrupt these days as the Cocke Bros… let’s make it right by doing what is right… INTEGRITY FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE… hmmm
it is unfortunate that even the little people are on the dole and feel entitled to take what isn’t theirs. 2 wrongs do not make a right or a left… let’s bring it to the center of fair and square my dears.

100Percenter

Instead of the Koch brothers giving money to Walker who is taking away peoples rights. They should invest in a end of the Iroc war parade to honer our solders who fight for our freedom.

What had happened was…

Boys will be Boys!!

freethinker

Why in the world can’t people tell it like it is. Walker didn’t take any rights away from unions in general, only some rights from public service unions that shouldn’t exist in the first place. True democracy is a right-to-work state where a worker has a real choice about whether to join a union. One thought just struck me. A lot of union members are gun owners and hunters. Will they follow the union or the NRA? Time will tell.

1olderbutwiser1

They seem to take it as a resentment by private industry employees that they have cushy benefits as well as a cushy pay scale, and are looked at as inferior, and they should not look at it this way. The public pays very handsomely for what they do, and as the old adage goes, don’t bite the hand that feeds you. They have just about bitten the hand all the way off. My opinion, for what it’s worth….let all these union employees quit their jobs, and go get jobs in private industry, but by all means, continue to go to these union rallies, help to impoverish your own self. It’s time you learn to work for a competitive wage and competitive benefits. The last provider for government salaries is private property ownership in the system as it is. Get rid of all real estate taxes, let’s see how well these employees can make out when all you have to use as a means to collect the non-competitive salaries currently paid, are by the means of the goodwill of the people you serve. Yes, I said SERVE……YOU ARE SERVENTS, NOT MASTERS. Learn to live with that.

1olderbutwiser1

my little finger gets a little wild now and then, yes, servant is the correct spelling. The one person in wisconsin who understands being a servant is the governor. The spoiled babies in the unions want him to be only a servant to them, and the master of all others. The reality is that a new day is dawning, the union members better learn to batten down the hatches, recognize that after their unemployment runs out, they may well be unemployed (possibly aka, unemployable) for the rest of their lives. America has fallen, and will only rise again by learning to be world-class competitors in every way.

Kingofnotsomuch

Maybe after this election the corps.and the rich will understand that votes wins all elections not money.The American people are tired of big money in politics.It’s time we showed them that we are going to do something about it.our gov. evidently can’t or want,but the American people can and will.

dfrosenzweig

I grew up in Pittsburgh when the steel industry was still strong and showed no signs of slowing down or stopping. The labor unions were constantly striking about wages and benefits – the 2 reasons unions always give as the case for their strike. I got so tired of hearing of their tactics that I soon grew to dislike them. Now, however, after working in what amount to meaningless jobs, with no chances for a better future in those companies, I found myself sometimes thinking that a labor union could have only helped me get ahead with income and possibly more. That we’ll never know, but I can only tell you that unions are often corrupt in getting what they want [politically], and not necessarily for their members. They can be as abusive as employers who employ union members. Even though the purpose and intentions of a union are thought to be humane, that’s far in the past. Things evolve, catch up with the times. Until we know all of what the unions and their workers were doing that got Scott Walker to take his actions, we should reserve forming our opinions on this matter.